Creative teamwork is to the Six Sigma project what the Sun is to the Earth: a source of light and life.
Both combine basic elements to create energy. The Sun uses nuclear fusion to turn hydrogen atoms into helium. This nuclear fusion generates the massive amounts of energy that give life to the Earth. Six Sigma teams are made up of members who bring individual ideas and join them together to create the breakthrough solutions that give life to quality improvement projects.
The Sun is not only remarkable for its ability to generate energy but also for the ability to balance its powerful internal forces and prevent its own disintegration. The sun is a frothing mass of plasma with a surface heated to over 3 million degrees. The plasma ripples over its surface in waves that are over two miles high and move at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. Photons that escape from the Sun’s core release the energy equivalent of millions of atomic bombs every second.
It is the Sun’s gravity that counterbalances the powerful force of nuclear fusion and holds this seething, explosive ball of energy together.
Too many Six Sigma teams lack this balance and can fracture when their creative energies are not kept in check by a formal structure that gives them grounding and focus.
The best example is brainstorming. This process helps teams generate a high volume of ideas on any topic. Brainstorming unleashes the creative power of a project team. However, when the creativity of a brainstorming session is not counterbalanced with order and structure it often breaks down into argument, competition or simple chaos.
An Affinity Diagram is a Six Sigma tool that harnesses a project team’s creative energy to give brainstorming structure.
The How to use Affinity Diagrams
The beauty of Affinity Diagrams is that they bring order and structure to the chaotic process of generating new ideas. There are four key elements in creating an Affinity Diagram:
- Present the guiding question in a full sentence – The guiding question engages the group to encourage discussion and idea generation, so make sure you get it right. Neutral statements work well but positive, negative, and solution-oriented questions also work. An example of a neutral question is, “What are the attributes of an effective process?”
- Brainstorm at least 20 ideas – The ground rules of brainstorming require that all group members feel that their ideas can be shared without criticism or disapproval from the team. Record these ideas on Post-it™ notes in large print visible from at least four feet away. Avoid single words. A four to seven word sentence with a noun and a verb works best.
- Silently sort ideas into 5−10 related categories – Working in silence helps keep emotion out of the process and keeps the team focused on grouping ideas rather than persuading each other. It’s okay to duplicate an idea and place it into two different categories, or to let an idea stand alone.
- Use group consensus to create a header card for each group – The team works together to create a word or phrase that captures the central idea of each category. This phrase is then written on a Post-it™ note and placed at the top of the category.
Just like gravity contains the vast energies of the sun and puts them to productive use, the Affinity Diagram concentrates the power of team creativity to generate organized and detailed solutions for a problem.
